Motor fuel and method of making the same



Patented Mar. 28, 1939 PATENT OFFICE 4 2.152.196 Moron rum. annmrmon or MAKING 'rnn SAME Vaman R. Kokatnur, New York, N. Y., assignor to Autoxygen Inc., New

tion of New York York, N. Y a corp ra- Nb Drawing. Application ottom- 1, 1935, Serial No. 43,058. Renewed August 27, 1938 12 Claims.

My present invention relates to a fuel which may have a wide and varied range of usefulness, but which finds its preferred embodiment as a fuel for internal combustion engines, particularly for engines of the explosion type. 7

While it is within the scope of the present invention to provide various types of standard fuels having water intimately incorporated in them in various percentages, a preferred form. of the invention involves the use of an oil and water emulsion such for instance as a gasoline and oil emulsion, wherein the amount of water incorporated in the gasoline ranges from 10 to 50% by weight of the latter.

A primary object of the invention is to provide a stable fuel of this type which will give considerably more power than an equal volume of the standard fuel in which the water is emulsified.

Other objects are" to provide a fuel which may be inexpensively manufactured, which will keep an engine or an oil burner free from carbon, which will aid in burning out carbon which has been formed by the previous use of other types of fuel, which will permit higher compression ratios, which will render engine performance smoother, which will permit the engine to operate at substantially lower temperatures than those which obtain when standard fuels such as straight hydrocarbon oils are used, which will be stable over a prolonged period of time, which may be shipped and dispensed in the same manner as ordinary gasoline or the like, which will in no way impair the life of the engine, since in burning it neither produces corrosive gases nor leaves any residue which might interfere with engine operation.

In order to understand thoroughly the present invention a very brief outline of the prior art and of the reasons for failure of the prior art to develop a commercially satisfactory product of this type should be discussed. Some early workers in this art produced oil and water emulsions with water in the continuous phase. Such emulsions were extremely difllcult to ignite and to burn and after this fact became recognized a great deal of work was done in an effort to produce a satisfactory emulsion with oil in the continuous phase. Invariably however the emulsifying or dispersing agents used, such as metallic soaps, naphthenates, sulphonic acids or sulphonates, involved attendant disadvantages which made the product commercially unsalable even though itwould burn readily. Among these disadvantages were the corrosion of the metal parts of the, engine, the

production of ash or residue which could not be eliminated by ordinary scavenging methods, the

need in many cases for highly specialized carburetion systems and most important of all, the fact that the .power obtained was so much less than that obtainable with ordinary gasoline that there was no real economy effected by the use of 5 a the emulsion.

While it has, been claimed that certain emulsions of the prior art promote smooth running of the engine and maintain .it carbon free, none of such emulsions have been capable of giving the 10 same power as ordinary gasoline or of permitting higher compression ratios. Moreover, the con sensus of scientific opinion is that no specific advantages are obtained by such emulsions, and there is not an authoritative scientifically accept- 15 able test on record which has proven any definite advantage for the oil and water emulsions heretofore proposed for use as fuels for internal combustion engines.

I have made certain discoveries upon which the 20 present invention is largely based and as will be later discussed in detail, have established by scientific tests made. by disinterested experts, that an oil and water emulsion made in accordance with these principles will give anywhere from 25 to 60% more power than a corresponding amount of gasoline, will permit much higher compression ratios to be used without increasing the temperature in the combustion chamber and is capable of use with standard internal combustion engines without any alteration in the present types of carburetion apparatus or in any other part of the engine or its associated mechanism.

As suggested above it has long been recognized that an emulsion of this type to be usable at all 36 must have the oil in the continuous phase. I have found that in addition to this, the dispersing or emulsifying agent used must be either completely combustible or entirely volatile so that no residue is left after burning the emulsion ex- 40 cept possibly an incombustible gas which is readily scavenged on the exhaust stroke of the piston.

I have likewise discovered that an essential" feature to the production of an emulsion which will give substantially increased power is the mainto tenance of the oil encased water particles within a definite and quite minute size range, specifically between 1 and 3 microns. while various other methods. or apparatus might be used to accomplish the desired result, I have found that I can not only render the emulsions more stable but can definitely control the sizeof the particles by homogenizing theemulsions with standard homogenizing apparatus. In this homogenizing apparatus the size of the orifice and the pressure employed appear to be controlling factors in predetermining the size of the particles.

In stating that it is essential to use an emulsifying or dispersing agent which is either volatile or combustible, I also comprehend the use of agents which include both volatile and combustible elements. Typical of such an-agent are certain amino compounds such as ammonia soaps in which the fatty acids are completely burnable without any residue, and the ammonia completely gasified at the temperatureswhich prevail in the cylinder.

I believe that another factor which may contribute materially to the additional power obtained by the use of my improved emulsions is the use not merely of a volatile and/or completely combustible dispersing agent but the use of a dispersing agent which volatilizes substantially as readily-as does the oil itself.

In my emulsion the individual minute particles, I believe, are structurally roughly composed of a minute water particle completely encased in oil, the oil and water being held against separation by an inflnitesimally thin layer of the dispersing agent itself. If at combustion temperatures the outer coating of oil suddenly volatilizes and burns and the liquid dispersing agent volatilizes more slowly, the liberation of water will be retarded with resultant lag in the vaporization of the water, with consequent failure to utilize the latent heat of vaporization at the proper time for cooling, and also failure to obtain the maximum explosive power. Perhaps also the failure to disassociate completely the hydrogen and oxygen of the water is a factor in the loss of power.

The foregoing tentative explanation of the physical make-up of the individual particles probably also accounts to some extent at least for the fact that such a highly volatile dispersing agent as ammonia may be employed without the fuel itself having any odor of ammonia and without the fuel losing its stability by the volatilization of the ammonia in storage. Since the ammonia film is entrapped between the oil film and the minute water particles, it has no opportunity to escape.

In any event I have definitely established that ammonia soaps can be used as dispersing agents, that the emulsionsremain stable and that no residue is left after the burning of the emulsions, no corrosion of the walls of the engine occurs and the power obtained is far greater than that which may be obtained by the burning of any fuel with which I am familiar and which is capable of being handled by the ordinary carburetor of an internal combustion engine. Due to the fact that my emulsified fuel is somewhat heavier than ordinary gasoline I believe that even more exceptional results may be obtained by refinement of standard carburetion systems.

In my copending application Serial No. 37,943, filed August 26, 1935 and prior Patent No. 2,111,- 100, issued March 15, 1938, I disclose cognate subject matter and disclose certain specific methods of forming either milky or clarified oil and water emulsions suitable for use as motor fuels. Fuels made in accordance with those applications and with the size of the particles of the emulsions accurately controlled by homogenization have produced phenomenal results upon testing.

The particular emulsified fuel upon which the tests were made, was formed by emulsifying water and gasoline with an ammonia soap and then homogenizing the emulsion. It should be understood, however, that I believe any dispersing agent which will produce an emulsion with oil in the continuous phase, and which is completely volatile or burnable and which will not effect engine corrosion, might be substituted for the ammonia soap. I also believe that fuels such as alcohols or other materials which aremiscible with water will, if produced in accordance with my invention, give added power.

I do not wish the appended claims, therefore, so construed as to exclude from their scope any fuel having water intimately combined with it and otherwise conforming to the teachings of my invention.

Certain specific tests made by testing agencies of the United States Government give a fair indication ofthe added power derived by burning a fuel of the present invention rather than a standard gasoline.

An emulsion of the type above, asoline sold under the trade-name "American" and containing 1 of water, gives 5% higher power. A similar emulsion containing 24% of water gives on an average of 40% higher power. For example where 1500 cc. of gasoline were conmade from sumed in producing 1 H. P. H., only 1315 parts of the 24% emulsion was required for the production of 1 H. P. H. Thus the actual consumption of gasoline in the emulsion was only 1000 parts as compared to 1500 giving more power than the gasoline alone. The same gasoline with which 33.7% water was incorporated yielded a 40% over-all higher power. The same gasoline emulsified with 40% of water produced about 61% higher power. The same gasoline with 5 of water in the emulsion produced on the average of only 26% higher power. These tests would indicate that the greatest efilciency is produced when the emulsion contains somewhere between 20 and 40% of water since the power appears to fall oil. when the water content increases beyond this. Furthermore, I believe that any greater water content than 40% may involve difiiculty because of the possibility of reversal of phase of the emulsion. The above tests were made when both load and compression were constant.

The gasoline used in the emulsions above described is the gasoline widely sold under the trade-mark American.

Another series of tests were run with an emul-' sion using the gasolinesold under the trademark Purol Pep both in the emulsion and for comparative testing purposes. In the production of 1 H. P. on a one cylinder engine with a constand load and compression, 2071 cc. of the "Purol Pep was consumed. Using an emulsion of "Purol Pep with 10% of water, 2259 cc. of the emulsion was burned in order to produce 1 H. P. but this, as will be readily recognized, involved the burning of only 1876 cent the pure gas, giving an average increased power of 10%.

The same gasoline in an emulsion containing 25% of water, consumed only 1434 cc. of the emulsion to produce '1 H. P. and only 1036 cc. of the pure gasoline. That is, with this particular emulsion the same power was obtained by using roughly half as much pure gasoline or in other words, a power increase of roughly 98% was obtained.

Using this gasoline again in an emulsion which contained 50% by weight of water, the total fuel consumption required to produce 1 H. P. was 1706 cc. and the actual gasoline consumption 888 cc. The power efficiency using this type of gasoline in the emulsions was obviously much larger, but the engine did not start as well and run as smoothly as did the emulsion containing the American" gas and the difilculty experienced in starting and smooth running would indicate the disadvantage of using such high percentages of water. Other tests indicate that difliculties might be encountered in insuring the stability of an emulsion having such a high water content and that reversal of phase with such emulsions is an ever. present hazard. Also the engine used for the above mentioned tests was ineflicient and consumed normally about four times as much fuel as a more efficient engine would have consumed.

In a test made under the supervision of a government experimental engineering station, a special aviation fuel known as 73 octane in pure form was compared with various emulsions formed in accordance with my process in using "73 octane as the base of the emulsion. Using 73 octane" by itself 1 H. P. H. was produced by the consumption of .84 pound. Using -the same octane in an emulsion containing 16 of water, the consumption was .839 pound to produce 1 H. P. H., this representing a consumption of .710 pound octane fuel and showing an 18% higher power eiflciency.

In an octane emulsion containing 24% water, only .816 pound of emulsion was consumed, this involving the consumption of .620 pound of the octane to produce 1 H. P. H., showing roughly, a 35% higher power efficiency of the emulsion over the pure octane.

Similar tests made at the same testing laboratory in which the hydrocarbon fuel used for comparison and also used in the emulsion, was the gasoline sold under the trade-mark Essolene". These tests showed equally gratifying results and further definitely established that as the compression ratio was increased in the case of the emulsion, greater relative efficiency of the emulsion over the straight gasoline became evident. While actual fuel consumption readings were not made during this test, the power became higher and higher in proportion to the higher compression ratio with the use of an emulsion containing 33% of water. The actual point of the compression ratio at which a break might occur was never reached using the emulsion, although the straight "Essolene at approximately half thecompression ratio which was obtained by the emulsion, showed a definite breaking point beyond which power decreased rather than increased upon further increase in the compression ratio.

While the significance of these tests is almost self-evident, it may be noted that the possibilities of oil conservation by the use of my invention are tremendous and I believe the invention applicable equally well to alcohol fuels or to mixed fuels, including both gasoline and alcohol, such as that disclosed in my prior Patent No. 2,111,100 above identified. The fuel used as a propelling means for marine engines with the water content thereof distilled and the fuel manufactured, as required, at sea would virtually double the cruising radius of the ship. Even as an airplane fuel a given weight of emulsified fuel, due to the added power, permits a ship to travel farther than it could with a corresponding weight of gasoline. Furthermore if the water liberated by burning ordinary gasoline is utilized in emulsification directly at the engine airplanes may have their cruising radius further increased.

Many advantages of this type of fuel which are not discussed in detail here are fully disclosed in my copending applications above identified.

In the claims the term anhydrous fuel" is intended to include all straight hydrocarbon oils, alcohols, others or ketones or mixtures thereof as opposed to the water containing fuel'of the present invention.

Having thusvdescribed my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A volatile fuel for internal combustion engines, comprising as its principal element a hydrocarbon liquid boiling within the gasoline range having intimately combined therewith, at least 10% ofwater, with water in the interior phase, the particle sizes of said water containing fuel being in the order of 1 to 3 microns.

.2. A volatile fuel for internal combustion engines, comprising as its principal element a hydrocarbon liquid boiling within the gasoline range having intimately combined therewith, at least 10% of water, with water in the interior phase, the particle sizes of said water containing fuel being in the order of 1 to 3 microns, said fuel being more compressible than the anhydrous fuel alone and producing higher power than the anhydrous fuel alone.

3. A volatile fuel forinternal combustion engines, comprising as its principal element a hydrocarbon liquid boiling within the gasoline range having intimately combined therewith, at least 10% of water, with water in the interior phase, the particle sizes of said water containing fuel being in the order of 1 to 3 microns, said fuel comprising an emulsion of the anhydrous'fuel and 'water, the emulsifying agent being of the character which leaves no solid residue during combustion and causes no corrosion of the engine.

4. A volatile motor fuel comprising a stabilized homogenized emulsion of hydrocarbon oil boiling within the gasoline range and 10 percent to percent of water with the oil in the continuous phase, said emulsion being characterized by its ability to produce substantially greater power than a corresponding amount of the hydrocarbon oil itself and by an ignition point approximating the ignition point of the oil itself and by the fact that the particles are in the order of 1 to 3 microns.

5. A fuel of the character described, including a gasoline and water emulsion with the gasoline in the continuous phase the water being present in proportions of 10 percent to 50 percent of the gasoline and with an ammonia soap emulsifying agent which leaves no solid residue upon burning of the fuel, said fuel being characterized by the fact that it is capable of producing substantially greater power than the corresponding amount of gasoline alone and by the fact that the particle sizes of the emulsion are in the order of 1 to 3 microns.

6. A fuel of the character described, including a gasoline and water emulsion with the gasoline in the continuous phase and with an ammonia soap emulsifying agent which leaves no solid residue upon burning of the fuel, said fuel being characterized by the fact that it is capable of producing substantially greater power than the corresponding amount of gasoline alone and bythe fact that the particle sizes of the emulsion are in the order of 1 to 3 microns, the water content of said emulsion being more than 10 and lessthan 50% by weight of the emulsion.

'7. A fuel of the character described, including a gasoline and water emulsion with the gasoline in the continuous phase and with an emulsifyin agent which leaves no solid residue upon burning of the fuel, said fuel being characterized by the fact that it is capable of producing substantially greater power thanthe corresponding amount of gasoline alone and by the fact that the particle sizes of the emulsion are in the order of 1 to 3 microns, the water content of said emulsion being in the order of 25 to by weight of the emulsion.

8. A motor fuel comprising a homogenized emulsion of gasoline and water with gasoline in the continuous phase and with the water constituting 10 percent to percent of the emulsion, the particle sizes of the emulsion being in the order of 1 to 3 microns.

9. A volatile motor fuel comprising an emulsion of a hydrocarbon oil boiling within the gasoline range and 10 percent to 50 percent of water characterized by the fact that it is capable of producing substantially greater power than a corresponding amount of the oil alone and by the further fact that the particle sizes of the emulsion are in the order of '1 to 3 microns.

10. A volatile motor fuel comprising an emulsion of a hydro carbon oil boiling withinthe gasoline range and between 10 percent and 50 percent of water with the oil in the continuous phase, said emulsion including an ammonia soap as the emulsifying agent and being characterized by particle sizes in the order of 1 to 3 microns.

11. A volatile fuel for internal combustion engines comprising a hydro carbon liquid boiling within the gasoline range and having at least 10 percent of water intimately combined therewith with the water in the interior phase, said fuel being characterized by the particle sizes in the order of 1 to 3 microns and by the absence of anything except gaseous residue upon burning and by its ability to produce an appreciably greater power than a corresponding amount of the hydro carbon liquid alone.

12. A method of making a motor fuel which includes the steps of intimately associating 10 percent to 50 percent of water with a volatile liquid hydro carbon boiling within the gasoline range with the water in the interior phase and then homogenizing said fuel to produce an emulsion the particle sizes of which are in the order of 1 to 3 microns.

' VAMAN R. KOKATNUR. 

